This invention relates to an editing device, an editing system and an editing method for editing video and/or audio materials.
An editing device is provided which takes a video material and/or an audio material from plural sources such as a material tape, a video camera and a microphone, and edits these materials into a series of materials.
The editing device employs, for example, a method of installing plural VTRs for reproduction in parallel, reproducing materials, selecting necessary portions from these materials, and then sequentially connecting and recording the selected portions. Conventionally, the editing device employing such method has been broadly used.
On the other hand, another editing device referred to as a non-linear editing device system is provided. This non-linear editing system enables recording and reproduction of materials on and from a randomly accessible recording medium like a hard disc as a temporary recording medium in editing, and thus enables non-sequential editing. Therefore, quick reading of a desired video material and insertion and deletion of a material with respect to a series of video materials may be carried out without having any inconvenience, thus improving operability of the editing work.
Meanwhile, recently, various video and/or audio-related devices such as a VTR and a video camera have been significantly diffused, and the demand for an editing device for editing materials has been increased accordingly.
In a number of cases, such editing device is used with various limitations put thereon, like the skill of an operator who operates the device.
To actually carry out editing using video materials, the non-linear editing system requires the operator to have predetermined technical knowledge concerning video editing. Therefore, the non-linear editing device has a problem that it is difficult to sufficiently exert functions thereof if the operator lacks the predetermined technical knowledge.
In view of the foregoing problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide an editing device, an editing system and an editing method which enable sufficient exertion of functions of the editing device and the editing system as described above even when various limitations such as the skill of the operator are imposed in actual editing work using video and/or audio materials.
According to the present invention, there is provided an editing device including: a non-linearly accessible recording medium; recording means for recording video and/or audio signals onto the recording medium; display means for displaying a program configuration table indicating, every predetermined unit, images and/or sounds necessary for each program on the basis of configuration of the program; operating means for operating the program configuration table displayed by the display means; and control means for performing control to register an identification code appended every predetermined unit of the program configuration table onto the program configuration table by using the operating means, and to cause the recording means to record only a predetermined unit of images and/or sounds selected by operation of the operating means from predetermined units of images and/or sounds indicated by the registered identification codes.
According to the present invention, there is also provided an editing method including: a first step of displaying, every predetermined unit, images and/or sounds necessary for each program on the basis of configuration of the program, and displaying a program configuration table with an identification code appended thereto every predetermined unit; a second step of selecting the images and/or sounds necessary for each program, every predetermined unit; and a third step of recording, onto a recording medium, only video and/or audio signals corresponding to the predetermined unit of images and/or sounds selected at the second step, and displaying the images and/or sounds recorded every predetermined unit which is necessary for each program of the program configuration table.
According to the present invention, there is also provided an editing system including an editing device and an imaging device. The editing device includes: a non-linearly accessible recording medium; editing and recording means for recording video and/or audio signals onto the recording medium; display means for displaying a program configuration table indicating, every predetermined unit, images and/or sounds necessary for each program on the basis of configuration of the program; operating means for operating the program configuration table displayed by the display means; and control means for registering an identification code appended every predetermined unit of the program configuration table onto the program configuration table by using the operating means, and causing the display means to display the identification code. The imaging device includes: identification code input means for inputting the identification code appended every predetermined unit of the program configuration table displayed by the display means; imaging and recording means for imaging the predetermined unit of images and/or sounds corresponding to the inputted identification code, and recording the imaged video and/or audio signals together with the identification code onto the recording medium; and output means for outputting the identification code and the video and/or audio signals recorded on the recording medium. The control means performs control to cause the output means of the imaging device to output only the predetermined unit of video and/or audio signals selected by operation of the operating means from the predetermined units of images and/or sounds indicated by the registered identification codes, and to cause the editing and recording means to record the outputted video and/or audio signals onto the recording medium.
According to the present invention, there is further provided an editing method including: a first step of displaying, every predetermined unit, images and/or sounds necessary for each program on the basis of configuration of the program, and displaying a program configuration table with an identification code appended thereto every predetermined unit; a second step of imaging and recording, onto a first recording medium, the images and/or sounds necessary for each program on the basis of the identification code displayed at the first step; a third step of selecting the images and/or sounds necessary for each program, every predetermined unit; and a fourth step of recording, onto a second recording medium, only video and/or audio signals corresponding to the predetermined unit of images and/or sounds selected at the third step from the images and/or sounds recorded at the second step, and displaying the images and/or sounds recorded every predetermined unit onto the second recording medium which is necessary for each program of the program configuration table.